Joint Declaration of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and a delegation of British Parliamentarians & Lawyers

The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom - Extensive anti-regime protests in Iran demonstrate growing support for democratic change, a delegation of British parliamentarians and lawyers were told today by Mrs Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance. Joint Declaration of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and a delegation of British Parliamentarians & LawyersMonday 13 March 2006, Auvers-sur-Oise, France

The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom - Extensive anti-regime protests in Iran demonstrate growing support for democratic change, a delegation of British parliamentarians and lawyers were told today by Mrs Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance.

Mrs Rajavi said: "The Iranian Resistance can bring about democratic change in Iran. We offer a secular government based on democratic principles, which respects human rights."

She added: "The policy of appeasement adopted over two decades towards the Iranian regime has emboldened the mullahs in their violent suppression of the Iranian people and has acted as the greatest impediment to democratic change."

The delegation led by Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, who chairs the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom, included lawyers and members of both Houses of Parliament from all three major political parties.

It welcomed the referral of Iran's nuclear file to the UN Security Council and said comprehensive sanctions should be adopted to prevent the regime from developing nuclear weapons.

Lord Corbett said: "Trying to appease the mullahs has not worked. It has simply helped to keep a repressive and brutal regime in power. We support Mrs Rajavi's view that neither military force nor appeasement is the answer to the threat posed by the Iranian regime. Instead, democratic change can be achieved through the Iranian people and their Resistance.

The unjustified labeling of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) as a terrorist organization deprives the people of Iran and the world community of a supporter of peace efforts in the Middle East and a vital ally in efforts to prevent the mullahs from developing nuclear weapons, thereby avoiding turmoil in the region. It was the PMOI who first disclosed the regime's clandestine nuclear weapons program."

The delegation recognized the role played by the PMOI in advancing the democratic political process in Iraq and exposing the terrorist and fundamentalist meddling of the Iranian regime in that country. They also stressed the right of political asylum for PMOI personnel in Ashraf City.

Lord Corbett added: "It is time that our government and others in the EU, recognised the realities and welcomed the Iranian Resistance as friends in a common effort to restore democracy and human rights, which the mullahs have stolen from the people of Iran."